The Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Picture: PA

ANDREA MULLANEY

AROUND this time last year, I wrote a silly blog for The Scotsman’s website about the BBC’s attempt to bring back Jim’ll Fix It for Christmas.

Like half the country, I’d heard the jokes and rumours about Jimmy Savile, but assumed that if they were true “someone” would have done something about it, so my blog described him as “a one-off who could never be replaced” and cheerfully described the introduction of new host Shane Richie as “a travesty”.

What a difference a year makes. Now we know that the original was the real travesty, part of a cover-up campaign which lasted decades and caused enduring damage. The on-going fallout of the Jimmy Savile exposé has had many facets, from the crisis in journalism at Newsnight and the inglorious and brief reign of George Entwistle as BBC director general, to the police enquiries which have implicated several other famous names in grim accusations.

But for those of us not directly involved in the industry or the sad history, one unavoidable aspect is a change in how we think about the TV of the recent past. For some time it has been a byword for comical nostalgia, even for those too young to remember the gaudy light entertainment of the 1970s. Now, for a while at least, it feels like a giant question mark hangs over it all: not just the terrible scandals of Savile, but the exposure of the casual, ingrained sexism which the coverage prompted many to speak out about, not just backstage at Top Of The Pops or Radio One, but reflected in many walks of life. Watching those old programmes now feels deeply uncomfortable.

And it’s been an uncomfortable year all round for the BBC, a strange mix of triumphs (like their sterling Olympics coverage and the associated brilliant new Shakespeare productions, The Hollow Crown) and disasters (the soggy, misjudged waffle around the Queen’s Jubilee cruise, the stream of video-only interviews after the Breakfast programme moved to Salford and the embarrassment of The Voice’s flop, requiring an urgent revamp before it returns). But then, it’s been a bad year for the media in general, so in some ways the public broadcaster’s trials don’t stand in such clear relief as they might.

Sky was accused of fiddling tax, received hundreds of complaints about perennially inappropriate newsreader Kay Burley making people searching for a missing girl cry on camera and, above all, lost its chairman James Murdoch as a result of the phone-hacking scandal. But the digital channel did win praise for its investment in new British comedy, signing up big names like Steve Coogan, Chris O’Dowd and Ruth Jones.

Channel 4 marked its 30th anniversary this year. Once radical and experimental, its reliance on repetitive reality show formats has been dragging it down for years; but unexpectedly winning the rights to show the Paralympics turned out to be just the boost it needed. After a very popular Olympics, British audiences’ appetite for more sporting victories and admirable athletes proved enough to make C4’s informed, fun coverage a big hit and may, hopefully, pave the way to a new Channel 4. Or at least an ongoing series for Adam Hills.

Many reality show formats are clearly dying: ITV’s X Factor is, apparently, in “crisis talks” with Simon Cowell due to being rubbish, though I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here sustained interest with some thanks to colourful characters, as did Strictly Come Dancing with its emphasis on “good clean fun” family entertainment.

Possibly the longest-running ‘reality’ programme, the seven-yearly documentary series Up returned for a fascinating instalment, 56 Up, while Patrick Moore’s death brought to an end The Sky At Night’s stint as the longest-running programme with the same presenter. We also saw the final switch-off of the analogue signal – we’re all digital TV people now – and the end of Ceefax, surprising everyone who thought it had gone years ago.

And in Scotland, ITV and STV made up their row, enabling viewers to see all those network programmes that had gone missing in the last few years (and realising just how silly Downton Abbey really is).

While there are some programmes to look forward to already next year, it feels as if British TV is in a time of transition. Slashed budgets, tired formats and too many copycat ideas clutter the schedules. But in many ways the old adage is still true: we may not have the best TV in the world, but probably it’s still the least worst.

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

The Scotsman provides news, events and sport features from the Edinburgh area. For the best up to date information relating to Edinburgh and the surrounding areas visit us at The Scotsman regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website The Scotsman requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.